David Schuster and the ever present sexism at MSNBC

Regarding Hillary Clinton nearly all MSNBC shows can best be described as misogynistic. Chris Mathews is so enveloped by his fear of strong women that one hardly expects him to say a fair or balanced word about Senator Clinton. Keith Olberman has been truly disappointing. Those of us who had loved his show have found his relentless condescending to Clinton disheartening to say the least. Keith either has a massive blind spot about his sexist biases or simply does not care any more about informing his audience and merely wants to promote his candidate.
In this atmosphere of mindless and largely irrational contempt for the former First Lady, David Schuster glibly stated that the Clinton's were "pimping" their daughter out. This should surprise no one. I have written on this blog for over a year that the bile spewed at Clinton was, in large part, sexism pure and simple. One rarely hears arguments against Clinton based on her merits or lack of them. Even those who defend Obama rarely last more than a paragraph before they descend into insulting Clinton. "Bitch" is still a perfectly acceptable way among the masses to describe a strong women. Whereas no one in reasonably polite company would describe Obama as a "spook" or any of the other god awful words in the same racist family. While no one on Hardball or Countdown has described Hillary as a "bitch". The word gurgles just under the surface nearly every night.

When Obama attacks Clinton he is campaigning. When Clinton attacks Obama she is "up to something". Such is the state of the American media.

Overt racism is now unacceptable in the main steam media. Racism still exists in the MSM to be sure (If Natalie Holloway was a missing black girl the story would have evaporated in one news cycle). Sexism - or fear and hatred of women - is still ever present.

So calling Chelsea Clinton a whore on national television (and that is what Schuster did) is not so much a shock as it is a slip up. Schuster simply gave voice to what has been floating around for months at MSNBC. He made the subtext - text.

To NBC's credit he is suspended and Schuster has apologized. But it is time Dan Abrams sat his staff down and demanded at least an attempt at balance. On cable news we have settled into the new reality of networks serving their "base" more than they report the news. Fox massages everything to the Right, a few shows on MSNBC tilt Left, and CNN occupies the "USA TODAY" center. What has not been present on MSNBC is any balance about Hillary Clinton. Olberman's derisiveness toward Clinton was not even contained on Super Tuesday. It was out in the open.

The good news about Obama is that his ethnic background is rarely a factor. He got half the white vote in California - and those of us who actually remember a time before American Idol - know that this is PROGRESS.

The Obama campaign's value to Black Americans has been discussed at length by the MSM. The Clinton campaign's value to women, especially those over 40 - is rarely mentioned.

My hope is that Schuster's remarks will at the very least, force some soul searching. The narrative of the amazing senator from Illinois and the shrew former first lady is unfair and unwise. We are electing a President not America's Next Top Model. I would like to be able to watch MSNBC again without cringing. Some actual information about Clinton and Obama would be nice. I expect MSNBC to do more than be stenographers for Obama's "inspirational" talks and for the male dominated media to own up to their biases, if not get past them.